The present disclosure relates to a system and method for automatically selecting a digital sending functionality. More particularly, the disclosure relates to a system and method for automatically selecting an e-mail or a facsimile functionality in response to user inputs.
Conventionally, printing, photocopying, faxing, and e-mailing have each been accomplished through use of separate machines. Recently, however, multi-function peripheral (MFP) devices have been produced that provide the functionality of two or more of these separate machines. For instance, digital senders have been produced that both e-mail and fax documents that are scanned into electric form by the device.
Although the multiple functionality of MFP devices provides the user with the advantage of only having to purchase and store a single machine that can be used for multiple tasks, this multiple functionality can create user interface complexity. Specifically, use of an MFP device can be complicated by the fact that the user has several different options presented to him or her when a document is placed in the MFP device. For instance, when a document is inserted into an automatic document feeder of the MFP device, the user may need to specify whether the document is to be copied, e-mailed, or faxed by the MFP device.
Some machines provide many different dedicated keys for each device function. Although the desired functionality can be selected by the user with relative ease where the user is familiar with the function of these dedicated keys, selection can be more difficult where the user is unfamiliar with the machine. Indeed, the provision of many different keys can be confusing and even intimidating to the user. Other machines that do not have the space for many dedicated keys, for instance desktop models, are often provided with a general purpose interface that includes navigation keys with which the user can select the various device functionalities by navigating through a series of menus presented to the user in a device display. Although providing the user with a method for selecting the desired functionality, the process with which the user selects this functionality can be tedious in that the user may have to make many entries with the navigation keys before arriving at the desired functionality. In addition, the navigation process can be confusing and difficult to learn for new users. Furthermore, such interfaces normally comprise expensive hardware components and therefore increase the cost of the machine.
From the foregoing, it can be appreciated that it would be desirable to have a system and method for simplifying the task of accessing a desired functionality for digitally sending documents.
The present disclosure relates to a system and method for automatically selecting a digital sending functionality. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving input of a character, determining the nature of the character, determining whether a digital sending trigger has been satisfied, and where a digital sending trigger has been satisfied, automatically selecting a digital sending functionality based upon the type of the trigger.
In one arrangement, the system used to perform the above method comprises means for receiving input of a character, means for determining the nature of the character, means for determining whether a digital sending trigger has been satisfied, and means for automatically selecting a digital sending functionality based upon the type of the trigger. Alternatively, the system comprises logic configured to receive input of a character, logic configured to determine the nature of the character, logic configured to determine whether a digital sending trigger has been satisfied, and logic configured to automatically select a digital sending functionality based upon the type of the trigger.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention comprises a multi-function peripheral device capable of photocopying, e-mailing, and faxing documents. The device comprises a control panel having a plurality of alphabetic and numeric keys, a device that recognizes input of a document by a user, and a device operation module adapted to evaluate characters received via the control panel, determine whether the user desires to photocopy, e-mail, or fax based upon the received characters, and automatically enable and initiate the desired functionality.
The features and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.